It's Going to be All Right

This week the new 2019 dressage tests came out. I figured I'd go through some of my first impressions just for fun. I also figured I'd use Arrested Development gifs to do it because why would I not?

I'm going to just go over the major changes. There are some minor ones to some of the tests where the movements are the same but reversed or there are letter changes. To be perfectly honest, I didn't read every single test with it's old version open and compare. I just didn't.

But I totally read them enough to have an opinion though, okay?

My facebook notifications when the new tests came out

The introductory tests are basically the exact same. Same with Training 1 and Training 2. I'm supportive of not changing those tests. Training 2 is a fabulous test, in my opinion.

Woohoo less new tests to memorize!

Training 3
I do like that they added the three loop serpentine rather than keeping the loop. First, on a nutty young horse, a serpentine a) gives you more time in the court and b) gives you more time on a curved line in case your horse decides to explode. They also take away having to ride the canter across the diagonal, which is nice on a young horse with a giant canter. By far getting through that short side in that canter was the hardest part of Training level.

I do kind of think that the loop is important for riders to learn to ride... though I think given where I am as a rider, I prefer the serpentine. The next time I show Training 3, it will probably be on a nutty young horse. It'd be nice to see that loop show up in the rider test for this level. I, er, didn't look to see if they had new rider tests.

Thanks for more time in the court, T3

First 1 & 2
They kept these tests pretty much the same too. I'm happy about that as well!

I hate change

First 3
I hate what they did to this test. IMO the trot work is too easy in the new test. I think that the leg yield zig zag was a wonderful movement. If you're sitting there celebrating that you never have to do one of these, you're wrong. Learn to do this movement. Learn to do it well. Not learning how to do it properly will come back to bite you in the half pass and in the half pass zig zag. There's a reason why it was included in the first place.

LEARN YOUR FUCKING ZIG ZAG

Second 1
I think the changes they made to this test are GREAT. There are no canter to walk transitions and only two walk to canter transitions. I did think that asking someone to do a walk transition out of counter canter in the first test you ever ask for a canter to walk in was kind of asking for some shit. Most horses won't find that difficult, but riders sure fuck it up royally (myself included).

My only qualm is that maybe people will just do this test and then skip through to Third without truly learning how to do a canter to walk transition. But that happens already, so whatever. But seriously, just like the leg yield zig zag, canter to walk transitions happen for a reason so learn to be real fucking good at them. I don't know a horse with a halfway decent canter pirouette that can't do a bomb ass canter to walk transition.

Probably my favorite change is making this test more accessible
Not that TC and I had any issues with the old test, but man I can
see this being a big help toward a lot of First Level + riders

Second 2
I'm quite disappointed with Second 2. The trot work is pretty much the same, which is fine. I liked how that rode when I rode it earlier this month. For the canter work, they've basically taken 2-1 and put it into this test: simple changes in a serpentine and then just going across the short diagonal and down the long side for counter canter. I'm not cool with this. This means that 2-3 is the only test with what I'll call "real" counter canter. I mean, you can crank the horse's head to the side in this pattern, but doing a full half 20m circle in counter canter requires you to actually ride it mostly properly.

Plus, it's the same pattern as 2-1 except that now you do a canter to walk vs a canter to trot transition. I dunno, it feels repetitive if you were to ride both tests in the same day, which I plan on doing.

Literally there is only ONE test with REAL COUNTER
CANTER??????

THEN as if they want to kick me when I'm already down, they have you end with medium trot on centerline. Fuck that. I hate this test.

Why do you want to see my sad, strained face in medium trot
on centerline???

Second 3 & pretty much all of Third Level
Why change something that's already perfect?

I love you, 3-1, you're written so well (except that damn trot half
pass pattern, it's not steep enough!)

Fourth 1

There is only a minor change in this test but it makes me happy! Instead of picking up the canter right after a walk pirouette, you get to turn off the line and go to C before picking it up. I think that's really exciting. 

THANK YOU especially as someone who has
a horse who gets slow in the walk pirouettes

Fourth 2

They left this test the same, which is fine... When I had to do 4-2 it included working half pirouettes but these are much better. I'm torn between being like "if I had to do this shit, so does everyone else" and also thinking that 4-2 doesn't look so un-doable for TC in the next couple of years...

Maybe half working pirouettes?

Fourth 3

I had such high hopes for the 4-3 guys. The last time they made changes I was just fucking not having it. Luckily I didn't have to show it since I didn't have the horse to do it. 

Me about the 2015 4-3 test

This time I'm painfully aware that TC will (hopefully) be showing this test. I need to do it for All Breeds, I need to do it if I'm doing regionals... ugh. 

When I have to do 4-3 on TC

Alright... they did do one thing I like. They took out that fucking double rein back bullshit. My horse will hopefully be the most perfect animal by then and be able to do any amount of rein backs in a row, but I'm really glad they took it out. 

Before I read the canter work

They have left the other stupid movement in there that I hate: the 10m half circle in counter canter. Look, I get that a horse knocking on the door of Prix St George should be able to do a 10m half circle in counter canter. But just fuck that movement, okay?

They also took out the four tempis and just have three tempis on a double coefficient. This kinda sucks but kinda doesn't, and it depends on the horse. Rico and I (mostly me) were always better in threes than in fours, so it'd be nice to get 2x the score for the threes and just not have the fours. BUT there are fours in PSG so why not have both or just the fours in 4-3? I don't understand. 

Where are the fours???

Generally, my feeling toward 4-3 remains the same. I hate it. And now I have to ride it. Like this particular version of it. Ugh. I don't want to do it. 

Please no

A Enter Spooking

The second day of the show started off well. TC actually let me braid him without taking everything out of my pockets and distributing the contents across the cross ties. It was much cooler that day, so I was glad that I got to the show facility a bit early. TC and I went for a short walk to go get my First 1 test from the day before and visited the warm up.

He was thinking about playing here and I look like I've  never
been on the back of a horse before, but I love this picture

I read the comments from 1-1 and was a bit disappointed. There were moments where she threw us 7s, but the overall comments cited needing more impulsion. She really wanted him to cover a lot more ground, which is totally fair. She also circled suppleness of the back and engagement of the hindquarters, and also noted that he "explodes at times."

At this point in TC's abilities at shows, this is too much to ask of him. I can get more oomph in his gaits, but that's at the expense of tension. We're still working on relaxation in new places. So as I was walking around, I decided to scratch my First level test that day. It's just not worth it if we're not meeting the general expectations of the level. I'm not willing to push him past positive tension in the show ring. He just needs to mature a little bit more first. I'm glad I did it the first day, even just to know that First is still beyond our capabilities in a new place.

When we get a little tense, we get a little expressive

He's actually putting on muscle, yay

Knowing that we just had one test, I did some extra work in warm up before Training 2. TC once again started out a bit tight and then settled in that arena. It takes him a good five minutes to settle in a new arena, which is pretty much as long as a Training level test lasts. Cool.

Warm up went well, I was able to do some more transitions than before and also cantered him a fair amount. I figured I wanted a different problem than the porpoising from the day before (spoiler alert, I got it).

We headed over to the dressage court early and I used their small square arena off the show ring to trot and canter around. I figured it'd help a lot, and he did porpoise a few times there, so that was good. I shut him down a bit more firmly than I had in the show ring the day before, and soon he was quietly cantering around.

Around the outside of the arena, we trotted and trotted. He felt really good! I was thinking that this test may actually go pretty well. Then we entered the arena.

A: Enter Spooking... ugh

Why did I name my stupid blog the way I did? It was just a placeholder name but then I got some followers and it seemed odd to change it. I'm still thinking about changing it even after so many years!

So yah I literally turned up centerline and he was like FUCK YES SHOWING and tried to take off into the arena. I shut him down and then trotted over to X and halted, laughing. The judge gave me a 6.5 (the halt and after the halt was quite good) and said "nice recovery :)"

After that, the test went super! I let him out further for the stretch circle, which raised our score from a 6 and 6.5 the day before to an 8. The canter work was pretty brilliant, grabbing us a bunch of 7.5s. I was pleasantly surprised by that. He did go to play a little bit in each direction, but I stopped him and it actually just made the canter more impressive. The judge said "good call" for one of them and "he responded!" in another. Good pony.

We only had one more issue in the ring, where instead of doing a quiet walk to trot transition at C, in front of the judge, he tried to take off again. Again I stopped him quickly and went to work, but that gave us a 5 and the following trot circle was tense.

Across the diagonal

Thinking about running off but making the right decision

Overall we grabbed a 70% and second place, right behind the judge who was judging at the show three years ago when I got my Gold! I don't mind losing (only by three points, why did you zip off with me twice, pony!) to someone like that. She's an amazing rider.

The overall comments were great, the judge clearly was a lot happier with him the second day (and he was more relaxed so that makes sense). Said that if I could get him softer in his poll and more connected, that he was going to be great. That's exactly what we're working on! So that's great to have everything really consistent like that.

Across the diagonal

Such a good pony

The whole show was such a good experience. Even though the scores were not as great as they could have been, I was so happy by the end of the weekend. We went to a new place. We competed in a rated show. We didn't totally embarrass ourselves. I wasn't scared.

We have a long way to go still with showing, but given that I wasn't riding this horse at the beginning of the year because he scared me so much, I'm REALLY happy.

Our fall adventures aren't quite over, but the show season is. I have some fun stuff planned this fall with TC, but the pressure is off until the spring. It feels good to have had almost a full season with him, definitely didn't expect that at the beginning of the year!

Loves to Show

This past weekend, TC and I were at our final show of the year! I had been feeling very apprehensive coming up to the show. Very apprehensive. Like to the point where I wanted to scratch. Even putting him in the trailer, I thought about turning the other way on the freeway and heading down to the one day event that Kate and her crowd was at the same weekend and just being like "I JUST WANT TO PLAY IN THE WATER COMPLEX AND JUMP A TINY LOG OKAY?" but no, I paid for this show, and we were going.

So much could go wrong. TC hasn't been to a brand new facility since the Jeremy Steinberg clinic, where he was fine, but very tense. This was a brand new facility. I had also had my Tracey lesson deflate me a bit, so the last week of riding, TC had been bucking in the canter like... the whole time. Or slamming on the brakes as we went into canter and sticking his head straight up in the air. Or running sideways kicking out at my right leg/seat bone/side in general. It was a rough week.

AND because I'm a genius, I signed him up for First 1, why not try a new level while we're at it?

I do like how his canter is developing rideability-wise

Such a good egg

But this show is important to me. It's the show I got my Gold at three years ago. I wanted to do this show the first year I had TC, but then he was a little nutty. Then the second year I almost signed up but he was still really not quite there. This time, we were going. I tried to feel the nostalgia and look at my three medals in the mirror as much as I could, but I was mostly in survival mode.

TC came off the trailer as he always does in a new place... with lots of presence. He was definitely more relaxed than he was for Jeremy's clinic, so that was good to see. He hasn't traveled a lot this fall due to me being sick and then gone for like every weekend. But he's slooowwwwly starting to figure out that the places I'm taking him are not horse cemeteries.

We went on a short walk near the show ring and then into the warm up. I've never thought this place was spooky, Rico never cared about it. And TC was surprisingly unspooky. He just hated the eurocizer that you had to walk by to get to the warm up arena. You know you've been on one, right, TC? I trotted him in the round pen near the warm up and all he wanted to do was stare into warm up and poke the people sitting near the round pen with his nose.

So I figured, fuck it, took him back to the trailer to tack up, and just got on him right then. I had my longe line, but never needed it.

Floppy ears :) 

Sassy 

The first five minutes of warm up were me riding a basilisk. He snaked his neck around and around and bounced around at trot and canter. At first I was pretty certain that I wanted to get off the pony ride. A few people goosed us and he was threatening to take off with me. I really didn't want to be THAT person in warm up. Luckily, the weather was on our side. It was 85 degrees outside and he still has his winter coat. It only took about five minutes for it to really hit him, so by the time I was even thinking that this whole show was a bad idea, he settled into work.

We had a GREAT warm up. My plan was to go and just get as far as we could at this show. By the end of warm up, he felt super through and quiet, but not too tired. At that point, I was ecstatic to be at the show. Talk about feeling ALL the emotions that day.

Despite the good warm up, as we walked to the show arena, it really hit me. I'm about to go into an arena my horse has never been in, and put a permanent score on his record. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. I started to really get nervous.

Me wondering if this is a good idea

Looking mostly under control

But there wasn't toooooo much to be worried about. TC trotted around that arena like he owned it. He didn't care when the horse in front of us left. He didn't care when a guy at the house nearby started murdering babies cutting wood or something. He didn't care about a motorcycle going by. He didn't care about the automatic gate opening for a trailer (he cared a little). He just strutted his stuff and we got some really good scores. Lots of 7s and even an 8 on a canter transition!

Unfortunately, strutting his stuff meant LEAPING in all the canter work. Remember my issue keeping him in front of the leg in the show ring? Well, we now have a new issue. I asked him to canter and he was like FUCK YES I LOVE TO CANTER LET'S DO THIS and porpoised down the long side, then put in a respectable circle. The other direction he picked it up real nice (8!), then porpoised for most of the circle (5!). Mmmkay.

The last bit of porpoising was kind of hilarious. I could tell he was just SO EXCITED TO BE SHOWING. I really love how much he seems to love showing. He gets nervous in new places, but I think I've done a good job this year with all of the shows, making it super fun for him.

Too fun.

I got to the end of the test and dissolved into laughter. It was such a bad test. But I mean, I walked him out of this brand new arena on a loose rein and he was totally chill and proud of himself.

Coiling

Could you not?

A few strides later I mostly had him under control. PS, I stand up
when he acts up because of my back injury, I'm safe from whiplash
up there and better able to control him. It just looks silly

Our First level test was nothing to write home about either. He squealed into trot while going around the outside of the arena, so we had some rough bits in the trot in the beginning. Then he porpoised in the first canter transition so refused to do his canter lengthening at all (he gave me a "but I'm so tired after leaping, could we not?"). Then threatened to run off with me the entire fifteen meter circle and onto the diagonal.

The other way at the canter wasn't too much better, though we did show a lengthening! The highlight for me was the last trot lengthening, which just felt downright powerful. But he was a bit tight over his back in general in it though, so the judge marked us down accordingly.

Honestly, I wasn't in a great mood directly after the first day because it just felt like a letdown. We started the year scoring in the 70s and we were now solidly in the low to mid 60s (61 and change at 1-1 due to some unfortunately placed 5s; 66 and change at T2 again due to unfortunate lower scores in the double coefficients).

But when I got home I realized that being annoyed at the results was, in itself, a win. He was so good there that my annoyance wasn't "my horse ran away with me every ten steps in the show ring" or "my horse wouldn't get near the judge's booth" or "my horse terrified me and I don't want to ride him anymore." It was "my horse thinks that showing is the most fun ever and couldn't contain his excitement enough for me to get higher numbers written on this piece of paper."

Trot trot trot

He is always SO proud of himself after tests

We still had the next day, so I was eager to just get more miles put on him and ignore the scores. There is time to obsess over scores later. I was not going to let it ruin the fact that I had a really fun day with my horse at a brand new place. It was the first fun day in a long time. He is hilarious and maybe thought that leaping through the tests was a good way to cheer me up. In a way, it definitely worked.

Four for Four

Yesterday was the last show of our rated show series that TC and I were doing over at my trainer's barn.

My ride times were later in the day again, though not nearly as late as last time. I pulled in and got everything all situated, tacked the horse up, and got into the warm up with 20 minutes or so to warm up.

Good pony

After last show, I decided to try two new things: give myself less time to warm up and give myself more horse in general the day of the show.

Now that we've been to this facility I think six times, I feel pretty confident that TC isn't going to randomly come out like a crazy horse who needs 40-50 minutes of warm up for Training level. I also learned at the last show with two breaks in canter that I probably wanted more horse so TC had more energy to keep cantering in the show ring. The like thirty seconds of canter required at Training level is so hard guys. Even when you're schooling Second at home and canter for 10-12 minutes a day. So hard. Poor TC.

A bit up around the outside

In warm up I felt like I had a ton of horse, but TC held it together really well. The thing I like about this horse is for the most part, when he has energy, he will always chill at the walk. He might prance or swing his neck around, but he's not a ticking time bomb. It's the reason why I can leave him sitting for a week and get on with no longe.

So I felt totally safe as we went into our first test, Training 2. This test always rides well for TC. And yesterday was no exception. We walked away with a few eights (a diagonal, a trot circle, our last centerline, and rider position) and lots of 7s and 7.5s. Unfortunately, while there were no antics in the canter like breaking, TC was really up for the canter work but STILL behind my leg. Something is still going on in the show ring with him in the canter work. The judge marked us down accordingly with some 7s and a couple 6.5s. We also got, for the first time, a comment about how TC was behind the vertical a bit. Definitely due to having more horse in the show ring, good to know.

We still walked away with a 71.3% though! So that felt really good.

SASS

Training 3 didn't go as well. It got a bit cooler so TC was a little more distracted. And we had a few giant bobbles in the test, like when TC tripped into the right lead and then decided to let us all know how he felt about tripping by leaping into the air and kicking at the place he tripped. Cue giant eye roll. You tell 'em, TC.

In Training 2 I had accidentally not handed my phone off and it hadn't budged out of my back brace, so I didn't even think to hand it off in Training 3. Well, unfortunately that bobble started to dislodge it and by the time we were trotting, it was out of my back brace. I somehow caught it with my hand and had a decision to make coming in to the stretch circle: do it with my phone in my hand, try to shove my phone back into my back brace, or toss my phone out of the arena. So I tossed it. TC spooked at it a little but still put in a good stretch trot for him (still a 6.5 in the show ring though, the curse of the friesian, though we're working on it).

After the test, I had to hop off and grab my phone, leading to much laughing from the audience. At least the judge didn't notice!

Unfortunately due to some additional tension in the canter, TC's scores came way down and we ended with a 65.68%. I honestly thought that was a little low, but I also think that I've been being spoiled a bit too with a bunch of high scores on this horse. We got a lot more 6.5s than last test, and nothing over a 7, which hasn't ever happened before. I thought there were some places where he could have given us a 7.5 but I also haven't watched the video yet.

Me saying "oh well" to a bad test and me
having to throw my phone out of the show
ring... at least it didn't happen at the FEI level!

But it wasn't a bad show by any means! I'm really proud of TC these last four shows, he's really figured his shit out, gotten us some good scores (five of eight scores over 70! all over 65!), and given me a lot of confidence about our future.

We still have a long way to go until First level is possible with similar success, but we've got nearly two months before the next set of shows starts. And when I think about where TC and I were at the end of June.... well, I think two months is quite a long time for some good improvement on both of our parts.

I'm not sure if the next step is to grab two more Training level scores to finish out TC's Training level performance certificate thing, or if we'll make the jump to First. I wish this show had made that decision really obvious to me, but we'll be doing a lot more test riding and a few lessons between now and then where I can really make that decision.

But regardless of what might happen in October, we will continue perfecting all that First level stuff and hopefully hit the trail some too!

Elements of Training Level

After TC's bad behavior and subsequent beating (no ponies were actually beaten beyond what is acceptable for correcting dangerous behavior) afterward, it didn't surprise me that I had an excellent ride on Wednesday. I waited to ride until later hoping that around lunchtime it would be warmer and that the extra couple hours would mean my back felt better. Rearing and bolting don't hurt my back, but the buck really wrenched it. Normally if I feel a buck coming, I'll stand up (prompting many trainers to yell at me for it), but I didn't expect that one.

Alas when I headed out, it was 61 degrees and my back complained until I strapped my brace on extra tight. Oh well.

Tired pony :)

I ended up riding on my own. I knew he was going to be good, so no need to waste lessons. Also crazy trainer was afoot so I didn't want to ride in the covered lest I aim my bolting horse at her, accidentally of course.

He stood so quietly in the cross ties, proving once again that a tired baby horse is a good baby horse. After seeing that his leg handled his bad behavior, beating, and hard work the day before, I told myself I could probably do as much trot as I wanted at this point. I still want to keep going slow at the canter because he's still not very balanced in it. But he can trot all day and stay off that leg.

So I kept an eye on the time and we did an hour of work total, which kept the tired pony tired. Good! Especially because SmartPak is trying to murder me by shipping his SmartCalm to Newport Beach instead of to me, so he's off of it for a few days.

I'm running out of pictures that don't look the same

I'm doing a better job of riding the horse I have on any given day than I expected. I like consistency. I loved Rico for this- every day he came out generally the same horse. It made progressing through the levels very quick (PSG to GP in one year). But with TC because I'm not in a rush, I don't mind the bad days as much (at least right now... I'm sure I'll get a bit fed up with it eventually). I do hate that some rides are basically controlled turnout where I have to keep leaning forward to poke the loose bits of brain back into his ears. But on the good days, we're right back to work. And that was Wednesday's ride.

One thing I wanted to fix right away that I had realized I was doing was nagging. I didn't notice it initially because I'm not nagging him to be forward. I worked really hard to eliminate that on Rico, and TC is a naturally forward horse anyway, so I actually like that I'm able to put my leg on him these days.

But I am still nagging TC to be straight. Every step, I realized, I was poking him with the outside spur to get him to straighten out. Not effective. So we worked on that. I mostly just worked to use a larger aid, but not to overstraighten him since that causes fishtailing, and then to release that aid and only come on again when he didn't hold it. He's a smart cookie when he's tired, so within the first fifteen minutes of trotting both ways, I was able to fix it.

Such a good pony

After that, he was much straighter! If you remember from my training scale evaluation, the next step is collection. However, TC shouldn't move on to that just yet. I like to wait until they're really confirmed in the concept before pushing on to the next one. Especially collection. Collection too early can cause a multitude of problems, including fishtailing, bouncing on and off contact, and rhythm problems. No thank you.

So until he comes out consistently every day, we're staying put. But there are a ton of other things to do from Training level.

I'm not planning on showing any time soon. His brain is going to take longer to get show-ready than his body. But my plan is to work the body as if I was going to show him Training, then First, then Second, and whenever the brain is ready to show (he'll be hopefully coming with me to lots of shows as a non-compete horse, as well as being taken to as many barns in the area as we can this fall/next spring), we'll just enter whatever test will give us the scores I want. He honestly doesn't need to show at Training, there's really no point other than to get show experience.

But Training level stuff is still really important. The main movements we need to work on at training are all of them the stretch circle in trot, free walk, transitions, and the canter in general so yah all of them.

This browband was a great purchase

I worked on walk trot transitions first. They can be REALLY awful and I've gotten in a habit of getting caught up in the straightness work in trot and then sort of ignoring the transitions. Tracey would be quite upset. Once as he is straight, I need to come back and drill these transitions. It's hard for him to stay quiet in the connection and straight, especially to the left, but he is capable of it. And once as he figured out that was what I wanted, he tried really hard. Such a good boy.

After the transitions, I attempted a free walk, which was a disaster. At first I rode it badly. I just dropped the reins and kicked like I did with Rico. Rico had been so excited to be allowed to walk with his head on the ground that he just did it. TC was just really excited to be allowed to look at EVERYTHING without me telling him to pay attention. Hmmm that isn't ideal, he'll be doing it on contact I think.

There's also the element of it where TC needs to show off his big walk. He doesn't feel that comfortable power walking undersaddle. I remember when I first started riding him that he was the SLOWEST walker. I noticed that he had a nice walk, but nothing too special. Until, and I forget when this was, I saw him really walk out and then I knew his walk was RIDICULOUS. He looks like a panther stalking pray (except for his goofy face).

But getting it undersaddle is something I need to work at every day that I can. There's no reason to score less than a nine at Training on all his walk work with a walk like that. It's my points to lose by not training him properly. So we worked on just getting a forward walk and I figured the free part of it would come later.

He's so fancy sometimes

The canter is quite bad these days, if you saw the video yesterday. It's really not been in a place where I can do much about it because he's been covering so much ground. Now that he's starting to slow it down, I can actually put my leg on and push him up to the bridle, which allows me to use my hand properly (rather than taking it back all the time, ugh).

On Wednesday was the first day where I really encouraged him to come round. We've worked a bit on this in side reins so I know he's capable of more roundness at the canter. He stepped up and started to at least get his neck out of my face. Huge progress, even if he hasn't got the strength to really let go in his tense shoulder and come over his back. Hopefully soon since the canter quality is getting better even with a lot of tension!

We ended with the stretch trot, which hasn't quite existed until now. He knows what I want, but I was being a bad trainer and pushing him for too much at first. I train a stretch trot very carefully on a horse like this whose natural tendency is to go up rather than down. I ask him to go as low as I can without losing the same feeling in the bridle. Then we go an inch lower every week or so.

I do that to help the horse gain confidence/strength in the movement and to not feel like I'm relying on my hopes and dreams to keep them in the stretch circle.  It lets them know that when you start giving the reins for the stretch, they will eventually get it right and reach contact again, rather than just dangling the reins at them. If TC doesn't think there's the support that he desires (in the form of contact) at the bottom of the stretch circle, he'll give up and think that I just threw the reins at him.

Canter is so hard!

It was SUCH a good ride. Hopefully today's will be just as good. He's getting his feet trimmed (possibly his last trim before we put shoes on) and then the tentative plan is to get him into the covered arena. But every time I say that, things seem to go wrong and it doesn't happen. Eh eventually he'll be fine in there.

A Closer Look: The Rider Tests

You can now do rider tests for Training, First, and Second level. This is an interesting idea. Having never ridden one, writing this post is going to benefit me a lot! But it's not going to be talking about tests I've had direct experiences with, so keep that in mind.

The idea of these tests is sort of like the young horse tests- you are given a series of movements and you must perform them, but the marks are all collective. Meaning you don't get judged on each specific movement like a typical dressage test.

The emphasis in the scoring is completely on the rider. Clearly you need a horse capable of these movements, and if you aren't riding them well, the judge is going to ding you as a rider for not being able to ride your horse through the movements. But it's nice to have tests where you can get around that damn gaits score.

Just because my pony can't canter, doesn't mean I sit badly. I can
sit badly regardless of the quality of the canter.

There are five collectives (each out of 10 and worth x2 for a total of 100 points possible) where you are marked at the end of the test.

These collectives are:

Rider's Position- just generally that you are in correct alignment and balance, that your seat is correct, and that you maintain a connection.

Rider's Correct and Effective Use of the Aids- I like this phrase best: 'the horse responds willingly, giving the impression of clear communication between rider and horse' because it implies to me that there needs to only be the impression of clear communication. I choose to interpret it this way.

Horse's Response and Performance- obviously the horse HAS to do the movements, this tests the training of the horse. They mention the training pyramid and the horse clearly *reacts* to the longitudinal and lateral aids. React is such a harsh word, let's call it respond instead.

Accuracy of the Exercises- good riders ride accurately I guess. They want to make sure that you go into your corners and do the movements correctly.

Harmony Between Horse and Rider- they want you and your horse to appear to be calm, focused, and confident. Again, you only have to appear this way, apparently you can be freaking the fuck out on the inside. Nice.

Most harmonious ever

Training Level Rider Test

The rider test has its own purpose:

To confirm that the rider sits in the correct posture and alignment and shows correct mechanics in walk, ring trot, and canter. The seat is sufficiently independent for the rider to maintain a steady, elastic rein contact and encourage the horse to stretch into that contact. The horse is ridden actively forward showing impulsion and balance required for the level, bends equally to the left and right sides on turns and circles, and makes smooth, willing transitions.

This test is restricted to rising trot, just FYI.

The directives have a lot of information about what the rider should be doing, but other than that, it's a pretty normal training level test with some interesting things in it. Like the half circle with 3-6 steps of walk across centerline. My guess would be that this movement tests the rider's ability to ride precisely.

The canter work is a tad odd, no long side, only a half circle and then you immediately go across the diagonal. That could prove difficult for some horses, but I think for a horse like TC who gets so fast and unbalanced, I like being able to pick up the canter on the circle in a good place (across centerline) and then immediately go across the diagonal and trot.

My impression of it is that it's a pretty short test. I think for some riders, it's going to seem a lot easier, especially than T3, but IMO I would probably skip it. Other than the canter pattern, for a horse like TC, it's just asking for me to be out of control. There's also just not that much time in the ring, which isn't great for a young horse. I see the point of the test (no I don't) but I don't necessarily like it for either horses or riders. Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong or maybe it rides differently than it looks though.

So cute, but needs miles

First Level Rider Test

Purpose:

To confirm that the rider, in addition to the requirements of training level, shows correct alignment, posture, and mechanics in sitting trot, including maintaining a steady, elastic rein contact. In turns on forehand and leg yields, the rider remains centered and the horse responds willingly to the aids. The transitions are ridden in a better balance and with more throughness than at training level. In response to the correct application of the rider's aids, the horse moves actively forward showing a consistent tempo and correct rhythm in each gait, shows appropriate bending, lengthens and shortens the stride in trot and responds willingly to both longitudinal and lateral aids. 

Wow that sounds harder than First level, even before I've looked at the test. Upon looking at the test, you don't sit the whole time, just for bits of it. Phew, because I was going to say- you don't have to sit the trot at First so the rider test should not reflect that.

I think this test is interesting. You start with this weird short diagonal lengthening, which I don't think is very fair to horses. That's an awfully short period of time to do a lengthening- I can see riders kick kick kicking out of the diagonal and then yanking the horse back before the horse has time to respond. After that you immediately go into sitting trot, which is nice because it makes you have to think about your downward transition, props to the test makers there since a lot of people just fly out of a lengthening with no transition.

More trot-walk-trot transitions over centerline. Not sure why you'd have that both at Training and at First for the rider tests... Though it's in a sitting trot bit so maybe it's to give the riders a break?

They have you do turns on the forehand in the test. That's interesting since it isn't a movement you ever do in a dressage test. Not sure if there's a point to that (I mean the movement is important but I'm not sure what makes it important for the rider test and not for the regular tests) or if it's just something else they're going to dump into this test because they wanted to make it different.

I bet you get extra points for looking down

Your canter work is weird. You pick up the canter at E and immediately start a canter circle, then half way through you gallop wildly lengthen for the rest of it. I like the idea of lengthening the canter on a circle, and it's done in the eventing tests. BUT I'm not sure why, again, they want to make the lengthening so short.

After the first bit of canter you leg yield from the rail in sitting trot to X. That's surprising since that's a steep leg yield for First. Immediately you half circle to R, then pick up the canter at B and do the same pattern but then randomly do a serpentine with simple changes through the trot on centerline. I guess that helps you set up for the 2-1 test, but I feel like it'd be hard to ride that as well as the 2-1 pattern- the walk is slower than the trot so for First level, these simple changes have to be QUICK to get them equivalent to the 2-1 pattern.

Immediately after the serpentine you do another steep leg yield to a half circle, this time to a stretchy trot which is one and a half circles instead of one. I think they just threw that in to get you situated in the right place to get you up centerline. But I, as a person with a horse who struggles with stretching, think it's dumb. I don't think I'd care as much if I were riding a different horse though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Overall I think that test is even stupider than the Training rider test. The simple changes on the serpentine are dumb, they come up so fast that you're going to get a lot of riders pulling. The turns on the forehand are dumb, but not as dumb as the short lengthenings or one and a half circle stretch circle.

TC and I will not be doing that First level rider test, not least
because I can't look up or sit up or keep my hands up

Second Level Rider Test

Ugh the last one. Let's look at the purpose:

To confirm that the rider, having achieved the requirements of first level, is able to ride the horse reliably on the bit with an uphill tendency. The rider lengthens and shortens the horse's stride in trot and canter while maintaining correct alignment, posture, and mechanics. In lateral movements, the rider stays centered and demonstrates an appropriate angle and bending of the horse. As a result of the correct application of the rider's aids, the horse shows a greater degree of straightness, bending, suppleness, throughness, balance, and self-carriage than at first level. 

That sounds good! And you're now sitting the trot the whole time, awesome.

This test starts out great with a medium trot, then it throws a FOURTH LEVEL MOVEMENT at you, which is shoulder-in on centerline. Then you do a 10m circle and ride travers up centerline. I'm actually not opposed to this series of movements, since it is hard to see the exact angle on the long side. But I feel like on a green Second level horse, I'd rather pour hydrochloric acid in my eyes than ride this movement in front of a judge.

The turns on the haunches are on the long side, which remember I said was sort of mean. Because these things are meant to be ridden larger than walk pirouettes (which are on the spot) so you're going to end up way off the road if they're a tiny bit large. Which then means that you have to ooze back to the rail. Oh well, not the meanest thing they did to you in this test.

The first canter movement is the simple change serpentine from 2-1, cool. Then they make everyone on FEI horses cry because they have you ride a medium canter across the diagonal from H to P, then you hold the counter canter to A when you ride a simple change. Wow recovering from a medium canter in counter canter is ROUGH.

Right away after you do your simple change at A, you do the exact same pattern from K to R with a simple change at C. Then you trot at S randomly, and randomly go down to V for your half circle onto centerline where you halt at G. Dude, could you not have made this test shorter and just had the rider trot at C and come up centerline at S or E?

Half halt, pony, need to prepare for endless random trotting down
the long side

I don't like this test. I didn't like any of these though. Do I hate change or are these tests stupid?

I think the trot work on centerline and the mediums across the diagonal are too much to ask of Second level riders. I mean sure it's a Second level movement, but so would be two tempis with simple changes instead of flying changes and we'd never ask that. It's like the habit of xc course designers to ask upper level questions at Novice. Just because the height is low doesn't make it a friendly course for a green horse or rider.

But the worst thing that can happen at these tests (vs eventing) is that you get your ego bruised with a low score. But hey, you can just blame it on not having a fancy warmblood right? Wait, you can't? Damnit.

This is my half warmblood so he is half fancy

Third level next week maybe!